A Twist of Fate
by Black Rose Kalli
Summary: It is common knowledge that violence begets violence. But can anything good come from tragedy? What if you were given a chance to give life to a person, but you would lose the thing you loved most in this world? Linda must make that choice, but will it come to any good? *Note rating! It is there for a reason! Swearing and adult themes within!*


**Alright, first of all, let me warn you guys right now. This chapter gets emotional, really heavy stuff ahead. I had the idea for this story/wrote this chapter while listening to "Human" by Christina Perri. I highly suggest a listen along while reading as it really helps set the mood, but not necessary. **

Disclaimer: I own nothing connected to Hellboy, that all belongs to the wonderfully demented mind of Mike Mignola as well as all the people who went into creating Hellboy 2. This disclaimer will serve for the whole story as I hate writing these things.

And finally some warnings and some begging. First off, I cuss, my characters cuss, it's a thing. Second, there will most likely be some mention of sex in this story if not an outright scene or two, hence the rating. If you disapprove of either of these things or are not old enough to read about them, please leave now. As for the begging, it's only to say Please Review! Writers thrive on feedback and we love to know how we are doing and if people are enjoying our work. So Please please PLEASE leave me a review, a "nice story" is always appreciated, but constructive feedback is what I'm really after. If you don't like something, tell me, wanna see more of something, let me know! Anyway, enough from me and on with the story!

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The Impossible Choice

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The day my husband died is the day my story truly began.

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**Here follows the official report of one Linda Abernathy, regarding the details of the Crown Incident. (for additional information please see file number 2213K regarding Bethmoran royal family)**

It was mid March, cold and rainy, as it usually was in New York. My husband, a sweet young financier named Issac, had just gotten back from an appraisal for an auction house downtown. I thought it was a little silly, the idea of a charity auction having never sat very well with me, but he'd asked me to keep my opinion to myself until after the appraisal. Apparently it was for some very important old New York family and, to quote him, they had ears everywhere. I'd rankled a little at the idea of being muzzled, but in deference to his profession, as well as his mounting stress level, I remained silent. I may also have bargained for him to bring back the master list of items to be auctioned, all strictly hypothetical of course. I wish to this day I had never done it. It was the first time I saw it, something that had always fascinated me.

Since I was a child, growing up in the "traditional" Irish neighborhood, my grandmother would tell me stories of the Fae folk, as she called them. We would later come to know them as the people of the Unseen Realm, but back then, they were just fantastic creatures of ancient myth. She would tell me of the mighty elves, resplendent in their silken robes, bringing order and beauty into a world of chaos with their might and magick. She told me of the royal family, the most beautiful of all the elves. I remember King Balor, the wooden armed monarch who ruled with a kind benevolence that endeared him to all he called subject. The lovely Princess Nuala, peaceful and serene, like the still beauty of a lake on a windless day. But the one I will never forget, who will haunt my dreams until I die, is Prince Nuada, the dangerous, some would go so far as to say unhinged, Prince of the Unseen Realm. He always interested me most.

Back then I was too young to understand the concept of genocide. To me, his quest for the Golden Army was a righteous journey to save his people from the savage humans who threatened them. I didn't understand things like the economy, or population expansion, or even land rights. All I knew was that you routed for the prince in a story, because he was always the good guy. But the day I saw the picture of the golden metal fragment lying on that velvet cushion, my perspective changed.

I don't remember much of the night leading up to the Tooth Fairy attack, just bits and pieces of cover stories strung together to explain my sudden absence to my husband. He was home sick, lucky for him, though he wouldn't know it until much later. I, on the other hand, was racing toward the auction house and a speed I didn't know my beat up old Chevy could even handle anymore. It was an unlisted mission. My superiors never knew I was there. But I couldn't pass up the chance to get my hands on something so powerful. I knew that if the Crown was real, so to was the Prince who sought it. I thought, the sooner I get it and secure it in a vault, the sooner he will be stopped. I knew that if he got even one piece of the Crown, things would go very bad, very fast...and I was right.

I never reached the auction house. My car stalled a few blocks away, and the sidewalk was impassible due to construction on both sides. I had to take back alleys and fire escapes around the surrounding buildings and by the time I arrived, it was too late. The attack was already underway when I reached the doors. It was bedlam inside, I could make out people running by the shafts of light thrown off of cellphones. Tiny bodies all but covered the windows, chittering at me like I was going to challenge them for their meal. I remember one little guy had a man's eyeball in his teeth. I knew there was nothing I could do so I climbed back down the way I'd come and phoned in an anonymous tip to the BPRD hotline I had on speed dial. My fellow agents never knew I was the one who called it in.

I should have just gone home then and left the rest to the response team. I should have picked up some cold and flu medicine for my husband and spent the night under the nice warm covers of my own bed. I should have done just about anything other than what I did. But hind sight, as they say, is crystal clear. As it was, a few hours later found me tailing the large troll, and I mean that literally, that seemed to be either Nuada's lackey, or, more unlikely, his friend.

He led me in circles for a while, taking side streets that dead ended, climbing ladders that went nowhere, but as I followed him, I was shown a whole new world I never knew existed. It would seem the peoples of the Unseen Realm were not as extinct as we thought. I guess I should've made that connection sooner, might have saved a life or two, but again, hind sight. I was lead through the Troll Market, a place I would have loved to have spent some time in, a strange underground maze of twisting tunnels and what looked like the remnants of an ancient palace until finally we arrived back on the streets of what I've come to call Human New York. We'd traveled almost all the way to the edge of the city, miles away from where we'd started, all in what felt like the blink of an eye, and all without the troll noticing me...of so I thought.

He stopped as a small apartment building, one of those old red brick numbers that looked like it was built in the thirties and left to rot. He all but knocked the door from the hinges as he walked in, a vicious growl shaking out of him and straight into me. That was when I knew that he knew I was there. I turned, getting ready to jet off back down the road, only to be rendered suddenly and resolutely unconscious.

I woke up the next morning in my own bed, dressed as I would normally be, head splitting and husband grinning away as he dabbed at his nose with a tissue. He made some kind of joke about being a poor liar and staying out all night drinking with the girls, flashing a bottle of aspirin and my favorite hang over breakfast, a greasy bacon sandwich and milk, before exiting the room. I remember searching for the missing night, trying in vain to bring up even one image of the supposed "night out" that Issac had mentioned, but all I found was a fuzzy kind of blackness. I couldn't place it then, but something felt off about the whole thing. If only I'd known.

The next day passed as an agent's day normally does. The only variable that changed, and I hate it to this day, was that for the first and, I was to find out later, only time...I kissed my husband goodbye. I cannot convey how much I wish I hadn't.

I didn't get the call until after lunch. Issac had been brought into the medic's office. I knew immediately that things were dire. Normals were never brought down into the facility if there was even a snowball's chance in hell of them making it back out. I guess I should've resigned myself to it then, the inevitable loss of the only man I ever loved, but Hope is a cruel bitch, and she whispered that maybe, just maybe, the universe would make an exception. It didn't.

I was dimly aware of the goings on around me, the panic and rush to detain the princess, keep her safe from her insane, megalomaniac brother, but I didn't really pay it any mind. I should have, perhaps things would've gone a different way if I had. Instead, I threw myself body and soul into research. My husband had been poisoned, code name "Kiss of Death". I was to find out later that Nuada had put it on my lips while I was out, aiming, I guess, to silence me. But he'd misjudged how it worked. It wasn't enough to just lay it on the skin, it needed pressure to push through the epidermis and enter the tissue underneath. From there is would proceed to invade the body system by system, shutting them down until nothing was left alive. A fatal sentence in a time when machines couldn't keep people going long enough to find a cure. As it turns out, there was only one. It was a juice extracted from the leaves of a very rare tree, a tree I would never harm due to my religion. My employers had no such qualms. It was the desecration of the ancient Rowan that drew Nuada's attention to me yet again.

He got to the agents before they got to me. He knew what it was for, and when he saw who, he laughed. The son of a bitch actually laughed. He said he "had me", and that he would shatter the tiny vial of liquid and condemn my husband to an eternity of wandering between the worlds if I didn't help him. But I knew something he didn't. I knew exactly where his sister had hidden the Crown piece as well as where she'd secreted herself and the map. He would need all three to complete his revenge. I told him as much, big mistake, now that I look back on it, but I was near hysterical at the time.

He took me hostage, dragging me all over the building until I showed him to the library. I'll skip what happened next, the report is on file if you want to know, just look under "Golden Army Incident" and you'll find out all about it. I'll just skip ahead.

It was hard to believe that only a week had passed since the auction house. It seemed like years. I'd tried to get more oils from the Rowan tree, praying to my goddess for intervention or a sign that I could harm this beautiful and ancient thing, but enough ancient things had been wounded that day and I was denied. I remember the flight back over from Ireland, the silence in the plane cabin was stifling. Abe and Liz both were weeping silently while Hellboy just fretted over what more could have been done.

The bodies, or statues as it turned out, were carefully secured in the cargo bay, the broken pieces of the prince kept in separate boxes to avoid any further damage. But that didn't last long. At least one of them was alive and well by the time we made it back to the states.

I've never seen anyone come back to life before, least of all someone who's been turned into a statue and then shattered. But as we touched down JFK International, the door to the cargo bay burst open. And that was the day my husband died. Though I suppose he wasn't really alive anymore to begin with.

The trip back to headquarters was awkward to say the least. I'd never ridden in the back of a maintenance van before, and hopefully never will again. Nuada was strapped to a chair, vehemently protesting his treatment, insisting he'd been sent back with divine purpose and that he was no longer the enemy. I was the first to slap him. I say first because Liz, the fire starter, was right behind me. I'm surprised he made it back in one piece.

The moment we were through the gates, agents were swarming over the van. Only one was there for me. He said a "specter" had come to my husband's bed the night before. He'd taken a picture of the thing and showed it to me. It was no ordinary specter, it was the image of Death himself. Hellboy had met his own version of this being in Ireland, and it would appear that my husband had met his as well. But the thing that confused me was that my husband was still, technically, alive. I would later come to hate that fact.

The events of the day could be said to have culminated in my husband's hospital room. The specter had appeared before me, giving me a choice. I could save the life of my husband, and sacrifice the life of the Princess, who was not in fact dead, simply...immobile, and doom untold numbers of people, or, I could surrender my husband to his death. In doing so, his remaining life force would be passed to the Princess. It was a ritual as old as time, and it put me in the most painful position of my life. I was given a set time to consider, it would appear Death has a conscience, and that time is almost up. I have five hours left to decide if my husband will live or die...

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Linda looked up from the laptop, tears coursing down her cheeks as she tried to screen her words to seem detached and professional. She'd never meant to fall in love with the man lying in the bed. Her marriage had only ever been a cover story, a way to appear normal when her work as a deep field agent required her to hide out for a while. But somewhere along the line, she'd fallen hopelessly in love with the sweet financier she never thought she'd live long enough to know.

She sniffled, passing her hand over her eyes, hatefully dashing the tears away, only to have them replaced by more. It was an impossible choice. Surely the specter who had come to visit her knew what he was asking, and knew what it would do to her. She glared up at the ceiling, hating every celestial being she'd ever put her faith in. What good were gods and goddesses when they wouldn't help you in your hour of need. She had done every ritual and spell she could think of, going so far as to research some of the old Irish remedies she swore never to use. Nothing worked. She had failed to get even a spark of renewed life from the man in the bed.

Some part of her knew that he was gone, that all that was left was a shell, but death was so final. There was no other word to describe it. There was no coming back from true death. It wouldn't matter if Issac was on the verge of a miraculous recovery. It wouldn't matter if all he needed to wake up was a kiss or a couple hours of caffeine and loud noises. Once she made that bargain, once she made the only choice she knew was open to her, he would be gone. It was a thought so painful it seemed almost physical. She set her laptop aside as she felt the tears come heavier. Her body curled in on itself as she sobbed, her body bowing forward as if to protect her breaking heart.

It was in this state that Nuada found her. She knew he would come. She knew that Death had been open with his deal. Perhaps he wasn't kind after all. Perhaps he was a vindictive puppet master that enjoyed watching his little players dance at the end of his string. Perhaps he was simply playing by an unknown set of rules. Linda didn't care. All she cared about, in that moment, was holding her body together as it threatened to shake apart.

Before she knew what was happening, a cool blue hand was being laid on her burning forehead and she felt the sharp angry pain diminish to what could almost be called manageable.

"It's all I can do for now. Sorry it isn't more." Abe's strange bubble like voice sounded softly behind her as her vision slowly focused on the people before her. There, in his regal silks, stood Prince Nuada. She felt pure fiery hatred flare up in her at the look of mocking derision on his face, but that too was almost instantly quelled. "Later, there are other things to do first." His voice sounded calm, almost passive, to his credit. He didn't allow any of his own bias to sneak in and influence her decision.

Liz and Hellboy were there as well, sad faces set in somber expressions. Linda knew what they wanted her to do, what they all wanted her to do. Nuala was the obvious choice. She was a Princess, she was important. If she died, truly died, as Death said she would, the results would be terrible, though the "why" of that particular prophecy had never been explained. Issac, sweet and wonderful as he may be, was, in the hard face of truth, nobody. He wasn't special. He didn't have any powers. He'd never met a mysticism he didn't immediately dislike. And he was all but dead anyway. So why make it a choice? Why make Linda do this? It was something she'd been wrestling with since it happened.

That brought her eyes to the final person in the room. Death had arrived. It was time.

"Child. Have you come to a decision?" His voice was alien. It was like thousands of voices were shouting the same words, but from so far away they seemed faint. There was no inflection, no personality, nothing tangible to cling to, to find hope it. It was just an endless screaming void of sound.

"Two questions, and then I answer. Deal?" She stood, her voice scratchy and rough from crying.

"Ask your questions." Death bowed slowly to her, gesturing out with one hand to show he was receptive.

"Will he ever wake up?" She felt her eyebrows knit together as her lower lip began to tremble. She had planned it all in her head. She saw herself as calm, resigned, saving her sadness to mourn in peace when hateful eyes had gone. But the ugly reality staring her in the face was too much for her fragile emotional control to handle. She knew the tears would come, she just hoped they came with some dignity.

"He will never wake." Again, the same finality. It was like a punch to the gut. No sympathy. No bargaining. Nothing but a final blow to what little light she still felt. "Ask your final question."

"Is his soul...still here?" And there they were, coursing down her face in tiny rivers. She didn't think she had any more tears to cry. She tried to keep her face as smooth as possible, holding back the sobs so that her breath caught and hitched in an odd rhythm. All but two pairs of eyes turned from her, unable to handle the raw emotion being put on display. On pair were cold and lifeless, reflecting nothing. The other held a strange mix of anger and regret. But Linda saw none of this, all she saw was the gaping black voice that was the mouth of Death as he uttered one word.

"No"

She tried to remain standing, tried to be strong in her husband's final moments, as she always thought she'd be. But her legs seemed to disappear out from under her. She saw the statue of Nuala being brought in and laid on the floor, her feet almost flush with the foot of the bed. She saw Nuada sink to his knees beside her still form, a look of profound sadness on his face. And then he caught her eyes and she knew.

"Then save her." She hated herself the moment the words left her mouth. Her hand flew to it, hoping against hope to keep the evil sounds locked inside, but it was too late. The Universe had heard her decree, and her will would be done. She watched in shell shocked silence as the room grew dark, the only light coming from the glowing form of her husband. She felt more than heard herself begin to sob as a trickle of faint blue light began to seep out of him, forming a pool above his heart. It was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen and she wished for nothing more than to be able to get up and shove it back down into his body. But all she could do was hold her hand over her mouth, holding in the scream that desperately wanted to burst out of her. It was like there was a dagger in her chest, only it was coated in ice and on fire at the same time. It spun slowly, carving out all that made her happy or content, leaving jagged sharpened edges in its wake. It hurt to breathe, her heart broke with every beat, and then...just as soon as it had begun, it was over. The light floated across the room, sinking softly into the still form of the Princess.

Linda returned from her grief induced reverie to hear the steady whine of the EKG as it flatlined. Nuala's form returned to full life, her chest rising as she took in a breath of air. Her eyes fluttered opened just as Death faded from the room. Linda could no longer contain the shriek of furious grief. She flung herself onto the bed, begging with whatever fates would listen to return her love to her. She pulled at his limbs and shook him, calling out to him. She gripped him so hard she thought her fingers might break, all while screaming "Bring him back!". It became a mantra in her mind and she continued even when could no longer speak.

It only took an hour for her to subside into catatonia, but to her, it felt like an eternity. It was a blessing when her mind finally shut down. She no longer felt the pain, or the loss, of the sorrow. All she felt was an all encompassing numbness. It was Hellboy who came to lead her away from the body. The trio had discussed it while they gave her the space they knew she needed, and it was decided that his strength could be an asset. And they were right. The moment Linda's body left the bed, her mind snapped. She began to writhe and twist in the demon's grip, fighting to get back to the chilling corpse that had been her husband. It wasn't until they'd left the room entirely that she calmed down enough to be put back on her own two feet, and she didn't remain there long. No sooner had Hellboy put her down, than Abe was behind her, gently lulling her mind into a deep and restful sleep. It would do nothing to ease the pain of the loss, he knew, but it would allow her body and soul to come to terms with it.

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Alright, there's chapter 1, emotional, I know, but I wanted to get the prelims out of the way now. Pleas please PLEASE review! Seriously, it's like food and water to a writer to get feed back and I wanna know what people think of this! Anyway, hope you enjoyed it and see ya in Chapter 2!


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